


F. emasculata

by leiascully



Series: The FBI's Most Unwanted [50]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 06:53:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8134346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: She and Mulder had discovered so much, uncovered so much, and yet their questions went unanswered.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: 2.22 "F. Emasculata"  
> Disclaimer: _The X-Files_ and all related characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Studios. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

Scully worked in the lab, culturing her specimens, counting down the minutes until she could discover her fate. Somewhere else, Mulder followed the trail of the infection, trying to avert disaster. They were always on the cusp of saving the world, it seemed, always two steps away from the end of things. At least this time, he was taking her calls. They were working in perfect synchronicity, each according to their strengths, the pair of them tuned to the same frequency like a couple of walkie-talkies, like entangled particles. Mulder could be anywhere until he was observed, but she could feel him, spooling out the distance between them, their connection almost palpable. One tug for all's well, two tugs for help. Together they unraveled the mystery from both ends. Like so many knots, there was nothing in the middle. They clutched only the frayed strands of their evidence, unable to bind the perpetrators, their own hands bound.

It frustrated her, sitting in Skinner's office, relaying the details of their case. She had been a breath or two away from certain death. Mulder, too, had risked himself. How close had he come to death this time? How close to the deadly spray had he been, while she sped from the lab to the bus station? And yet nothing would come of it. No convictions. No respite. No justice. Skinner held their last sample, their last proof. Skinner was implacable judge and jury, dismissing their case. 

She had always had a weakness for father figures. She had thought for a time that Skinner might be the next. He had quashed that impulse in her, planting himself between them and the truth. The job Skinner did was not the job she had come to do. She wondered if her disdain showed on her face as she said her yes sirs, waiting to be dismissed back to their forgotten corner, where truths went to be hidden between reams of official lies and disavowals. 

She had seen so much in the last few years. She and Mulder had discovered so much, uncovered so much, and yet their questions went unanswered. Their discoveries were buried by the Bureau. The filing cabinets seemed like a series of shallow graves some days. The evidence room was even worse, its careful catalogue reducing horrors to dry descriptions, nightmares to alphanumerics. _F. emasculata_ would be entombed there with all the other near-disasters. Nothing would happen to Pinck Pharmaceuticals. The government would conceal the danger. The obituaries of the fallen would mention nothing about the manner of their death.

"Come on," she said to Mulder, "let's go."

"Agent Mulder," Skinner said as she opened the door, and they both turned to glare. He might be their superior; they would never be subordinate. They had pledged their allegiance to the truth. She wondered if Skinner had too, and what had changed him. 

"I'm saying this as a friend," Skinner told them. "Watch your back. This is just the beginning."

She wanted to tell him it had begun twenty years or more before. She wanted to tell him she was no longer sure the foundations of their nation had ever been sound. She wanted to tell him that he ought to address them both with his vague portents; she was just as much a part of the X-Files as Mulder was. But she said nothing, just turned in step with Mulder and let Skinner stare after the dark lines of their shoulders as Mulder kept pace with her, as they descended again into the purgatory they'd chosen.


End file.
